D-Day Italy: Operation Baytown at Reggio Calabria
Introduction:
According to Clayton Marks of London Ontario (in his text Combined Operations), the Officers of the Flotilla were briefed about plans related to D-Day Italy sometime on September 1st, 1943, at one of the assembly points near Messina (from which the expedition was to cross). Then, thirty-six hours later (likely in the very early hours of Sept. 3, D-Day, Canadians of the Royal 22nd Regiment, the West Nova Scotians, and the Carleton and Yorks embarked upon some of the assembled landing craft. Here we learn Canadian soldiers and Canadian sailors - manning the landing crafts - were operating together at last. (Page 86)
Canadian troops were mentioned in the first sentence of some of the earliest news to hit Canadian shores about the invasion:
The following photo, from an unnamed source (likely not related to the actual landings), accompanied the article in The Winnipeg Tribune:
Lloyd Evans (RCNVR, Combined Operations and a member of the 80th Flotilla of Landing Craft) recalls the following about September 3rd and a subsequent operation in his Navy memoirs:
We went in at Reggio with our load of Canadian troops under a very heavy allied artillery barrage from the hills of Messina. There appeared to be little or no opposition. We later found out that Italy had already agreed to surrender but hadn’t announced it to wrong foot the Germans. The deception worked since the Germans did not reinforce the positions vacated by the Italians. I can still see the Sicilians running around cheering 'Benito et finito' [Benito (Mousellini) is finished]. To celebrate one of the locals dug up a bottle of great wine he had buried to keep it safe from the Germans.
Allied forces advanced quite rapidly so another unplanned landing further up the coast was set in motion. The object this time was to land supplies for the advancing Allied forces and our flotilla was one of several selected for the job. While we waited on a safe beach for the signal to leave a few large warships, including a battleship, went past at high speed. Their mission was to shell the new landing beach before we moved in during the night.
The waves they created started to wash the landing craft off the beach so I winched the door up a little prior to ramming the craft back onto the beach. Unfortunately I left the safety catch off the winch handle and the next wave lifted the boat and I took the full force of the spinning winch handle on my left leg before I could remove it.
One of the other boys made a similar mistake but this time with the kedge anchor winch. It hit him on the head to his severe injury. An Italian surgeon inserted a steel plate in his skull to repair the damage.
Since this landing was not part of the original plan there was little reliable intelligence as to enemy defences. An LCI was sent in to investigate but luck was against them as the beach was defended by some top German artillery units and the craft was destroyed. The landing was called off. (Page 33, My Naval Chronicle)
In the aforementioned text, Combined Operations, we read the following about Sept. 3, D-Day Italy:
In the early morning darkness of September 3rd the loaded craft moved up the Strait, close inshore on the Sicilian side, making for their take-off point. Among many ships crowding the narrow waters, "Warspite" and "Valiant" swept by, looming hugely. The wash from the battleships' passing bounced the landing craft like water bugs and sent huge waves over the sides to soak the men. The big ships of the Royal Navy, at that tense, nerve-fraying moment, came in for a heartfelt cursing.
At dawn the armies for the invasion of Italy moved across the six mile Strait. "Warspite" and "Valiant" were forgiven their trespass by the men in the landing craft as the Navy added to a great barrage put up by artillery firing from Sicily across the Strait. Screaming through the half-light overhead, thousands of shells from the artillery of the Army and the big Naval guns passed above the Flotilla. Plumed explosions rose inland as the ramps of the craft went down and the conquerors of Sicily set foot on the Italian mainland. Great transit searchlights from the Sicilian side were cutting through the dim morning to assist navigation and directing smoke shells were providing some assistance mixed with a good deal of confusion. (Page 86)
In the aforementioned text, Combined Operations, we read the following about Sept. 3, D-Day Italy:
In the early morning darkness of September 3rd the loaded craft moved up the Strait, close inshore on the Sicilian side, making for their take-off point. Among many ships crowding the narrow waters, "Warspite" and "Valiant" swept by, looming hugely. The wash from the battleships' passing bounced the landing craft like water bugs and sent huge waves over the sides to soak the men. The big ships of the Royal Navy, at that tense, nerve-fraying moment, came in for a heartfelt cursing.
At dawn the armies for the invasion of Italy moved across the six mile Strait. "Warspite" and "Valiant" were forgiven their trespass by the men in the landing craft as the Navy added to a great barrage put up by artillery firing from Sicily across the Strait. Screaming through the half-light overhead, thousands of shells from the artillery of the Army and the big Naval guns passed above the Flotilla. Plumed explosions rose inland as the ramps of the craft went down and the conquerors of Sicily set foot on the Italian mainland. Great transit searchlights from the Sicilian side were cutting through the dim morning to assist navigation and directing smoke shells were providing some assistance mixed with a good deal of confusion. (Page 86)
More details about events prior to the invasion of Italy from Page 1 of The Winnipeg Tribune:
My father, also of RCNVR, Combined Ops, and a member of the 80th Flotilla of Landing Crafts, recalls the following in his Navy memoirs, "DAD, WELL DONE":
If memory serves me correctly, (we) attacked Italy at Reggio di Calabria across Messina Strait on my birthday, September 6, 1943.
(Editor: Sorry, Dad, you were off by three days. But Sept. 3 was something to celebrate, after all).
There was no resistance. The air force had done a complete job and there wasn’t a whole building standing and the railroad yards were ripped to shreds. (Page 35)
At midnight on September 3, 1943 our Canadian landing craft flotilla, loaded once again with war machinery, left the beaches near Messina, Sicily and crossed the Messina Strait to Reggio Calabria in Italy. The invasion of Italy was underway. (Page 113)
It was no different touching down on the Italian beach at Reggio di Calabria at around midnight, September 3, 1943 than on previous invasions. Naturally we felt our way slowly to our landing place. Everything was strangely quiet and we Canadian sailors were quite tense, expecting to be fired upon, but we touched down safely, discharged our cargo and left as orderly and quietly as possible.
In the morning light on our second trip to Italy across seven miles of the Messina Straits we saw how the Allied artillery barrage across the straits had levelled every conceivable thing; not a thing moved, the devastation was unbelievable and from day one we had no problems; it was easy come, easy go from Sicily to Italy. (Page 114)
The Italian campaign was “easy,” so far as his share of the invasion was concerned, he said. “There was nothing to it. It was just a matter of walking in and taking over, after a 55-minute bombardment of Reggio Calabria, on the toe of the Italian boot, by naval guns and rocket guns.” (page 123)
More details in the form of articles, maps and editorial cartoons from The Winnipeg Tribune follow:
My father, also of RCNVR, Combined Ops, and a member of the 80th Flotilla of Landing Crafts, recalls the following in his Navy memoirs, "DAD, WELL DONE":
If memory serves me correctly, (we) attacked Italy at Reggio di Calabria across Messina Strait on my birthday, September 6, 1943.
(Editor: Sorry, Dad, you were off by three days. But Sept. 3 was something to celebrate, after all).
There was no resistance. The air force had done a complete job and there wasn’t a whole building standing and the railroad yards were ripped to shreds. (Page 35)
At midnight on September 3, 1943 our Canadian landing craft flotilla, loaded once again with war machinery, left the beaches near Messina, Sicily and crossed the Messina Strait to Reggio Calabria in Italy. The invasion of Italy was underway. (Page 113)
It was no different touching down on the Italian beach at Reggio di Calabria at around midnight, September 3, 1943 than on previous invasions. Naturally we felt our way slowly to our landing place. Everything was strangely quiet and we Canadian sailors were quite tense, expecting to be fired upon, but we touched down safely, discharged our cargo and left as orderly and quietly as possible.
In the morning light on our second trip to Italy across seven miles of the Messina Straits we saw how the Allied artillery barrage across the straits had levelled every conceivable thing; not a thing moved, the devastation was unbelievable and from day one we had no problems; it was easy come, easy go from Sicily to Italy. (Page 114)
The Italian campaign was “easy,” so far as his share of the invasion was concerned, he said. “There was nothing to it. It was just a matter of walking in and taking over, after a 55-minute bombardment of Reggio Calabria, on the toe of the Italian boot, by naval guns and rocket guns.” (page 123)
More details in the form of articles, maps and editorial cartoons from The Winnipeg Tribune follow:
Please link to Articles: Italy, September 1 - 2, 1943 - Pt 1.
Unattributed Photos GH
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